Cats and Bruises
Cats and Bruises is a 1965 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt. Title The title is a play on the phrase "cuts and bruises". Plot Sylvester spies on the Cinco De Mayo festival where Speedy Gonzales and his friends are dancing and partying. Sylvester then dons a mouse disguise consisting of only a pair of mouse ears, and gatecrashes the festival. When two of Speedy's friends mistake Sylvester in the mouse disguise as a giant mouse, Speedy points out to them that it's a cat (el gato), not a mouse, and all the mice then retreat and run for their lives. Speedy then lures Sylvester to the dog pound, where the cat gets attacked by numerous bulldogs. Sylvester escapes from the dog pound and continues chasing Speedy. When Sylvester successfully catches Speedy with a net, Speedy continues running inside the net, dragging Sylvester along until the cat crashes into a pole. Later, Speedy is serenading his girlfriend on a boat on the lake. Sylvester goes after Speedy in an inflatable raft, but Speedy throws a dart into the raft, puncturing it and causing Sylvester to sink underwater into the lake. Next, Sylvester drags a box, a plank and a 500-pound weight to the point at the base of the apartment building that is in a direct vertical line with the window where Speedy and his girlfriend are. He supports the plank with the box in the middle, stands on one end of the plank and heaves the weight onto the other end. This propels him up to Speedy's level and enables him to snatch the mouse. However, as he runs off, the weight lands hard on his head. Finally, Sylvester builds himself a hot rod racing car and chases Speedy with it. As the chase continues, Sylvester realizes that he forgot to put brakes on the car, and drives off a cliff and into the lake in the middle of the desert. With Sylvester out of the way, Speedy then tells his friends that the party continues. Speedy's triumph is however short-lived, as an injured Sylvester in a wheelchair then chases Speedy at slow speed, so slow that Speedy lightly jogs away saying, "This is the only way to run." Availability * (1982) VHS - The Looney Tunes Video Show, Volume 2 Notes * This cartoon contains reused animation from "Here Today, Gone Tamale", "The Pied Piper of Guadalupe" "Dog Pounded", "A Pizza Tweety-Pie" and "Canary Row". * The mouse ears Sylvester wears at the start of the cartoon are the same ones as in the end of "Here Today, Gone Tamale", except here they are all black, resembling those of Mickey Mouse's ears from Disney. * This cartoon marks one of the last pairings of Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester ("The Wild Chase" would be their last pairing) and the last cartoon in The Golden Age of American Animation where Sylvester speaks (in his final two appearances, "The Wild Chase" and "A Taste of Catnip", Sylvester does not speak). Goofs * When Sylvester starts chasing one of Speedy's friends, his mouse ears disappear from the shot permanently. * During a brief shot showing the bulldogs in the dog pound, the bulldog's mouths do not move to the barking sounds. * When Sylvester is driving his rod racing car to chase Speedy, one of his arms is missing. * Inconsistency issues, at one point, Sylvester's neck becomes black and white in different shots. Gallery Cat's And Bruises SS 1.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 2.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 3.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 4.jpg|Cats just wanna have fun. Cat's And Bruises SS 5.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 6.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 7.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 8.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 9.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 10.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 11.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 12.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 13.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 14.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 15.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 16.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 17.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 18.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 19.jpg Cat's And Bruises SS 20.jpg|"I forgot to put brakes on this silly thing!" Cat's And Bruises SS 21.jpg 189998 10150128898773926 223597233925 6423251 5523742 n.jpg|Lobby card Sylvester dropping Cactus Plant on Bulldogs.jpg TV Title Cards lt cats and bruises tbbats.jpg|''The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show (Final Season)'' Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:1965 Category:Shorts Category:DePatie-Freleng Looney Tunes Category:Speedy Gonzales Cartoons Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Cartoons directed by Hawley Pratt Category:Sylvester Cartoons Category:Cartoons written by John Dunn Category:Cartoons animated by Bob Matz Category:Cartoons animated by Norman McCabe Category:Cartoons animated by Don Williams Category:Cartoons animated by Warren Batchelder Category:Cartoons with music by Bill Lava Category:Cartoons animated by Lee Halpern Category:Cartoons produced by David H. DePatie Category:Cartoons with layouts by Dick Ung Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Tom O'Loughlin Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with film editing by Lee Gunther